Edna Smith

There was never a nightclub too dark for Roy DeCarava. "I am not afraid to take pictures under impossible conditions," he told an interviewer, explaining that he would rather work in total darkness than manufacture brighter surroundings. "Maybe it’s because I want them so badly that they do, somehow, come out." As if by sheer will, he here coaxes a glint from Edna Smith’s wristwatch, a slight shine along her hand, and a point of light on her nose. Easing with the bassist into an inky lower register, he matches her tone.

DeCarava made this photograph around the time that Smith started her own trio, after touring for years with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. She is better remembered today as a music scholar, and reflecting on the career change, she lamented the strain of performing, the inadequate pay, and the physical toll of her huge instrument. In DeCarava’s picture, however, she seems, for an instant, impossibly serene.